Author: Emily-May Liddle

Our Debut Performance of The Truth About Bedtime… was an official SELL OUT! We sold 89 tickets but managed to extend our seating arrangement to accommodate our waiting list attendees as well. This was a massive achievement for us and meant that the atmosphere within the space was incredible. The audience reactions enhanced the lively and upbeat theme we have running throughout the performance and the comedy within our piece was extremely well -received. The feedback I have heard has been incredible and I am sincerely proud of what we have achieved as a company in such a short window of time.

Looking back, I would like to have had the poster designs finalised and sent to print slightly earlier as it would’ve allowed more time for flyering and putting up of posters. The creation of the posters was a learning experience that challenged me to design and produce materials that would hold up to a professional standard. If I were to continue marketing for the performance I would have a few amendments that I believe would improve the quality of the prints aesthetics. I would also want to further our exposure within community groups. Our callout was targeted to specific audiences across Lincoln to attract people from all different circles. For example, we wanted to capture the attention of new parents and so we directed our call out towards new parent groups such as LilPacs. This targeted marketing and outreach was extremely effective and I feel further exploration of this would be hugely beneficial to us as a company in future.

I cannot wait to see what is in store for Sherbet Lemon Theatre next!

E.L.

As our show has developed I have started to draft and design our flyers and posters. My original drafts were paintings designed by Amanda that depicted starry night skies and shadows with text overlaid across the image. After further discussions with the group and an insight from Julie Ellerby (Marketing Manager at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre) it was decided that these images portrayed a show more suited to children than adults. We compared flyers we had seen and found to determine what we could do to capture the aesthetic of our performance. To combat this we contacted a local photographer, Toria Maxwell,  and commissioned her to take a variety of images that I used across our marketing materials. This allowed me to use the drawings to break up the empty space on the poster rather than them being the entirety of the poster itself. The bright and neon colours in the drawings foreshadow the neon drawing we use within the performance and tie the two together nicely. In order to appeal to the largest audience demographic possible for our production, I have utilised my understanding the Audience Finder tool (used by Arts Council England) to tailor our approach to specific audiences. This has allowed us to maximise our potential outreach and develop a better understanding of our target audience. This has been helpful ultimately across all areas as we can cater to all demographics by understanding their wants and requirements. When writing the copy for The Truth About Bedtime… I collaborated with our Director, Emelia, to get a better overall impression of her ideas for the show. This helped me write an unbiased copy that summarises the intentions and highlights of our show fairly. Below are our final show flyers, including the reverse side with copy.

E.L.

Cited

Sherbet Lemon Theatre (2018) Flyer Design.

Sherbet Lemon Theatre (2018) Flyer Design Reverse.

We want to cover all bases with our social media presence, attracting and reaching as many potential audience members and verbatim participants as possible. In order to ensure our posts are consistent and insightful I have created a schedule that runs alongside our activity schedule tailored around the events we have planned. This does not include every post I will be publishing but does indicate the main events and deadlines that I will be tailoring my posts around. Our social media presence will mainly include updates on rehearsals and process. This schedule will simply guide my marketing strategy.

E.L.